Jeweler at Store Favored by Jessica Simpson, Sandra Bullock, Robbed of $1.5 Million in Jewels During Lunch Stop in Santa Monica

Update: Cops say the victim didn't work for Susan Foster Exquisite Fine Jewelry but might have made a sales call there before the robbery (more details after the jump). Suspect descriptions also after the jump.

A man who works at amight have paid a sales visit to a Brentwood store that boasts catering to such stars as Jessica Simpson, Sandra Bullock and Camille Grammer told authorities he was robbed of $1.5 million worth of jewels today, according to Santa Monica police.

The victim, a salesman who might have just visiteda jeweler atSusan Foster Exquisite Fine Jewelry, had gone for lunch at VeggieGrill on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica when he was robbed, Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis told the Weekly.

The man told cops the 2:08 p.m. take was worth $1.5 million.

It happened in a parking lot near Veggie Grill at 2025 Wilshire Boulevard, Lewis said.

A jewelry vendor was either coming to or going from VeggieGrill -- in the parking lot -- when he was approached by three white men in their 20s, their faces covered with handkerchiefs or masks, and at least one produced a handgun and they proceeded to rob him of a black hard-shell backpack that contained jewelry.

The suspects fled north on 21st Street in a gray Nissan Sentra with a "broken out window," Lewis said.

No one was injured.

Update: Cops say the victim is a salesman who peddles jewels to stores and that he had visited a few locations before taking a lunch break. Originally -- just as the story was breaking -- police told us he worked for Susan Foster. But they now say he might have paid a sales visit to the shop before he was robbed. The situation is still being investigated.

A woman who identified herself as Susan Foster called to say "nobody who works for my store or who works for me was robbed."

When the salesman was robbed he had returned to his Toyota Prius after lunch when one of the suspects "proceeded to break out the front driver and passenger side windows. One suspect held a handgun to the victim while a second suspect reached into the front passenger side window and stole a black hard case messenger bag containing miscellaneous jewelry," according to an SMPD statement.

Dennis Romero has worked on staff at several magazines and newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian, and, as a
young stringer, the New York Times.